PCB-BCCI to discuss revival of cricket

LAHORE (Agencies) - Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) officials will meet their Indian counterparts in September during the ICC Chief Executives meeting to discuss the possibility of a bilateral series to compensate for a tour cancelled by India in 2009.
PCB Chief Operating Officer Subhan Ahmad said while Pakistan had to tour India next year and had no issues doing that but India must look at playing a compensatory series.
Next month we will be in London for the ICC awards and chief executives meeting and hopefully we will take up these issues with the Indian board officials, he said. Yes, we are due to tour India early next year as part of the Future Tours Program but before that we feel the Indian board should compensate us with a series for that cancelled tour that cost us millions of dollars in estimated revenues, Ahmad said.
If we cant play in Pakistan then playing the series at neutral venues is also an option available to us but we want the Indian board to revive bilateral ties by compensating us for that cancelled tour, he added. India was due to play three Tests, five one-dayers and a Twenty20 match on the tour of early 2009 but it got cancelled after the Mumbai attacks.
Meanwhile, the Pakistan Cricket Board will start their search for a coach to replace Waqar Younis immediately after Eid and the whole process will be handled by a special committee to be constituted by the Board, PTI quoted a PCB official as saying.
A PCB official also made it clear that the option of hiring a foreign coach cannot be ruled out as the idea was to find the best candidate to work with the national team. Whether it is Dav Whatmore or any other foreign coach we are not discounting out anyone. Whatmore is working in India but obviously we can have talks with him, chief operating officer, Subhan Ahmad said.
He said Pakistan cricket had plenty of experience with foreign coaches in the past so it would be nothing new but the whole decision would rest on the committee that will be tasked with the job of short-listing suitable candidates. Obviously we have until early October to finalise things after which the national team has an hectic international schedule starting with the Sri Lankan series in the UAE, he noted.
Waqar has announced that he will step down as coach of the national team after the tour to Zimbabwe. The former Test captain whose work has generally been appreciated in the Pakistan cricket circles barring a few exceptions has cited personal and health reasons for his decision to resign before completing his contract with the board.
While Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq and senior batsman Younis Khan have been all praise for Waqars work as coach with the team, former captains Shahid Afridi and Moin Khan have been among his critics.
The PCB official also refuted reports that the board had got in touch with former captain Javed Miandad for the coaching position. No we have not had talks with Miandad on this topic and obviously when the committee sits down to short list candidates they can consider him as well. Miandad has previously had three terms with the national team as coach but every time has stepped down or been told to step down in acrimonious circumstances by the board. Pakistan have employed foreign coaches including Richard Pybus, Bob Woolmer and Geoff Lawson in the past.